Guest feature: Common Green Sense

By Craig Manes

Kermit the Frog was right when he gave his now-famous line, “It’s not easy being green.”

Living green as we know it in the 21st Century is defined differently than what the beloved Muppet referred to. However, would I be out of line to say that you shouldn’t have to be bullied by a belligerent, stuffed, female pig girlfriend to see the value in so-called “green living?”

I’m here to discuss why green living is a logical alternative to … um … not-green living, and just what that may look like in a given week for the average contemporary global citizen.

Before I get too deep, I must say just a few years ago, I wasn’t very interested in the environment or anything that had to do with green living. My family did recycle a few items each week, but it wasn’t until I started grad school that I began looking into what God desires for my life — and for all of His creation — that taking better care of the environment hit me.

Through study and also in meeting people from around the world whose lives are being severely impacted by pollution, I really started to understand that caring for the environment around me was something I should be intentional about.

I heard people from Brazil talking about their homeland being flattened to make room for more cows to meet the demand for hamburgers. And I listened to friends from Southeast Asia tell about the affects of electronic waste. Computer keyboards and monitors from the West are shipped there and dumped in large quantities, only to have the poorest people in society scrounge through these piles for scrap. It’s these types of stories that finally got me to start listening and caring and acting.

So what did I do about it?

Here are a handful of ideas I’ve found to be pretty easy ways to honor God and His creation with my lifestyle. Our old friend Kermit may have been right that green isn’t easy, but it doesn’t mean that being green has to be impossible.

A few very doable ways to get you off to a green start:

1) Choose one location you visit often and go there without driving. Maybe it’s work, a local park, or the grocery store. Take the bus, bike, or walk. Make it a fun adventure!

2) Replace your light bulbs with the new energy efficient bulbs that sort of resemble a strange curly straw.

3) Paper or plastic? How about neither! Those 99 cent reusable bags sold at grocery stores are handy for carrying groceries, and you save the world from one of those dreadful plastic bags blowing across the town like tumbleweed!

4) Use your local recycling service. For many of us, we take the trash bin to the curb anyway. Why not pull out your recyclable plastics, glass, paper, and cardboard and throw it in a separate bin? Check with your local municipality and save some landfill space.

5) Do you like free stuff? Then freecycle! Check-out http://www.freecycle.org/ for people in your community choosing to give away items rather than trash them. You will see just about everything being given away — patio furniture, clothes, tools, even trees! That old lamp that’s been collecting dust for years now? Get in on the give-away fun and freecycle it. To join, you simply have to create a free yahoo email account to participate and then find your local freecycle group and check the postings whenever you wish.

6) Breathe easier — by having a houseplant. Strike back at stale indoor air and welcome a live oxygen producing plant into your home. Just be sure to love on it with water and sunlight.

7) Start a compost bin and recycle plant-based table scraps. If you have 12 inches of space outside your back door, you can compost. Not only does it equal less trash for landfills, it creates nutrient-rich, chemical-free fertilizer for your yard or garden.

8) Do you have any electronics sitting around your house or office and not being used? Go to http://www.gazelle.com/, a great site for either recycling or selling those outdated iPods, PDA's, and other old technologies you've left behind.

Being green isn’t just the latest hip trend. It’s a great, hands-on method of showing your love for God. Through simple ways, one step at a time, we can all take care of His creation.

Craig Manes is the director of church relations for admissions at Olivet Nazarene University and he gets his weekly workout by mowing with his gas-free mower and shoveling compost into his yard.